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The variety of properties “flipped” in England and Wales hit a document 12 yr low, as rising stamp responsibility prices worn out investor’s earnings, new evaluation confirmed.
Flipped properties — houses purchased, then re-sold inside a yr — accounted for simply 2.3 per cent of all residential property transactions within the first monetary quarter of 2025, down from 3.6 per cent the earlier yr, in keeping with analysis from property agent Hamptons.
This was the bottom proportion since 2013, the place flipped properties additionally accounted for two.3 per cent of transactions, because the housing market suffered from the lingering results of the 2008 monetary disaster.
Buyers who flip properties intention to make a revenue sometimes from renovating the property they’ve purchased and promoting it the next value.
Nevertheless, the common gross revenue made by an investor additionally fell, in keeping with Hamptons’ information, declining from 17 per cent within the first quarter of 2015 to 10 per cent in 2025, as a consequence of weaker home value progress and a shift in direction of flipping cheaper properties.
This sharp drop in investor earnings might be accredited to adjustments in laws inflicting stamp responsibility payments on flipped houses to rise to a median of £6,375 on preliminary purchases throughout the first quarter.
Stamp responsibility land tax (SDLT) payments now price the common particular person flipping a house in England and Wales a document 30 per cent of their gross revenue, averaging at £11,920 in keeping with Hamptons.
“Larger stamp responsibility payments are wiping out quite a lot of revenue from flipping,” stated Aneisha Beveridge, head of analysis at Hamptons. “Stamp responsibility payments now account for almost a 3rd of gross earnings.”
Beveridge added in some circumstances that “payments at the moment are larger than the price of renovating the property” and paired with rising materials and labour prices could make “flipping houses an more and more difficult enterprise”.
In accordance with tradesperson platform Checkatrade, the common price of renovating a property is £76,690, together with new fuel and heating techniques, rewiring electrics and replastering partitions.
Matt Thompson, head of gross sales at property agent Chestertons, voiced comparable issues: “Numerous buyers who give attention to flipping property have discovered that their return on funding has decreased over the previous years.
“Key elements aren’t solely larger property costs in sought-after or up and coming areas but additionally larger labour and building materials prices.”
Decrease returns, predominantly as a consequence of larger stamp responsibility prices, finally lowered the variety of worthwhile flipped properties. Regardless of 80 per cent of properties being offered for greater than they had been purchased, solely 66 per cent made a revenue following the fee of stamp responsibility.
Simply 7,301 flipped houses had been offered within the first quarter, almost 30 per cent beneath the 10-year first-quarter common.
“It [second home stamp duty surcharge] has multiplied prices for these people who find themselves refurbishing houses to a degree that’s more and more unviable,” added Beveridge.
“These are sometimes empty houses . . . and are sometimes initiatives which most first-time patrons and movers have shied away from.”
Rising prices have “pushed buyers additional north”, the place property costs and subsequently stamp responsibility prices are decrease, with 61 per cent of flipped properties being within the Midlands, north of England or Wales.
In distinction, the costly southern area skilled the most important declines within the share of flipped houses, with simply 1.5 per cent of houses being offered this yr in London being purchased previously 12 months.
